I'm Being Followed: How Google—and 104 Other Companies—Are Tracking Me on the Web

This morning, if you opened your browser and went to NYTimes.com, an amazing thing happened in the milliseconds between your click and when the news about North Korea and James Murdoch appeared on your screen. Data from this single visit was sent to 10 different companies, including Microsoft and Google subsidiaries, a gaggle of traffic-logging sites, and other, smaller ad firms. Nearly instantaneously, these companies can log your visit, place ads tailored for your eyes specifically, and add to the ever-growing online file about you.

The author has made a not-so subtle point here: "All that I had "opted out" of was receiving targeted ads, not data collection. There is no way, through the companies' own self-regulatory apparatus, to stop being tracked online. None. "

I wonder if "banning" tracking online would not violate the tracker's fundamental rights. It's like telling someone to close their eyes while I walk past.

Even more reason to use VPN's and move around among their servers. You can leave the tunnel when doing personal banking, personal emails - both https in my case. You don't have to of course. That is just my policy or way I prefer.